It is official... Everett is crawling!

The day after Christmas, Everett put it all together and started crawling. Up until this point, he would just get up to hands and knees, rock back and forth, and then go down to his belly to creep across the floor. Not any more!




He looks "robot-like" when moving, but soon I figure he will get it all figured out and will be all over the house.

Also, he started to notice that there are things above his eye level. (This is not good news for the other members of the family.) I think the stocking stuffers hanging out on the fireplace hearth on Christmas served as some quick motivation.

Yesterday, with some spotting from Mommy, for fear he would slip and fall face first into the edge of the table, he pulled up to his knees, and from the picture you can see he thought he was HOT STUFF!!




Today, I caught him cruising around the living room after his nap, and again, he started to pull up to his knees. This time though, he saw that there was something up on top of the table and reached a little higher... (I didn't get a picture of this, since that would have left my little stuntman without a spotter) and he ended up standing on his tip toes stretched out in a 45 degree angle. I helped him stand at the table and he busted out in a squeal as he pounded the glass top. Big brother Ethan helped cheer him on!

Beets for Breakfast - Our New Trend

I have been ordering from Azure Standard (thanks Miranda for turning me on to it!) for the last few months now. This past month I ordered 5lbs of raw organic beets and 25lbs of organic carrots for my smoothies! Since my shipment of beets have arrived, I have had a beet smoothie almost every day! To complete my breakfast I eat it with a scrambled egg.

Today, after realizing that I ate the last mango yesterday, I decided to switch it up a bit with my breakfast smoothie. After blending, I am happy to say that we have another successful smoothie recipe for breakfast!!

Red Raspberry Beet Smoothie
1/2 large carrot
1/2 large raw beet
1 pear
1 large apple
1 large handful spinach leaves
1/4 cup shredded organic unsweetened dried coconut
2 tbs ground flax seed
8-14 whole almonds (if soaked almonds can use 6-10)
1/3 cup frozen red raspberries
8-12 oz water

Blend everything together in Blendtec and enjoy. For chilled smoothie, add 1/2 cup ice cubes.



Have you eaten your beets today?

Visiting Santa

Today we took a trip to Valley West Mall to visit Santa. Everett didn't know what to think, but Ethan had a great time!

When asked what he wanted for Christmas, Ethan said a guitar. Santa asked if he wanted a toy one or a real one to play music and Ethan explained he wanted a real one. Santa then looked at me and smiled and said... "Well, I think we can make that happen." Ok... thanks Santa... good thing Ethan let me know what he wanted before we came to visit or we might have some talking to do. :)

Pink Smoothie Time

Beets anyone? Yes, I did say beets. We tried a new smoothie today and it was a hit! Actually, I think it is my favorite one yet!

1 mango
1 apple
1/4 cup soaked almonds
1/2 raw beet
1/4 cup dried unsweetened coconut
1 large carrot
2 tbs ground flax
1 handful purple kale
1 - 1 1/2 cup water

Blend and enjoy! Kid tested... Mom approved!

Green Smoothie Time!!

About a month ago I purchased a BlendTec Blender and we have been making Green Smoothies to our hearts content! My friend, Lucy, first turned me on to Green Smoothies when I visited her in Florida last winter, and I didn't have a powerful enough blender to really enjoy them.

Tonight we made a green smoothie with collards. Ethan got the first taste and approved.


Green Smoothie - Collards
1 mango
1 apple (I forgot to get the apple in the picture below)
1 pear
10 baby carrots
2 cups collard greens
2 tbs ground flax seed
zest of 1 lime
water


Blend until combined to desired thickness... add ice at final blending if chilled smoothie is desired.

Everett is 6 months old!!!

I can't believe our baby boy is 6 months old! He is sitting up, rolling all over, saying 'dada' and even knows what to do to get his older brother in trouble!!

I can't get enough of this little face!!!

(He weighed in at 14 lbs 14 oz on 12/5/10 with clothing and damp diaper.)

Kitchen Entertainment

Today, while baking food for a holiday party, the boys were entertaining each other very well. Everett was VERY interested in what Ethan was doing, and I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the peaceful moment in my kitchen.

Homemade Christmas - Fish Crayons

We are going to try and make a lot of our Christmas gifts this year, and Ethan wanted to make crayon fish for a holiday gift exchange. It was fun to break, chop, arrange and melt the crayons down.

We had a great time making a mess with this project while Everett was sleeping and the finished project was AWESOME!

While we waited for the crayons to cool, we decided to make a coloring journal from the crayon paper wrappers left over. We had soaked them in warm water to get them to come off the crayons nicely, so we first dried them in the warm oven before decoupaging them on the book cover. (I didn't get a pic of the book, but it turned out really nice!)





For the crayon molds:

1 silicone baking/ice cube tray
assortment of crayons (paper removed)

For easier paper removal, place the crayons in a bath of hot/warm tap water and soak for 3-5 mins. Remove and peel. Place the crayon paper on a cookie sheet and insert into a warm oven (170 degrees) for 2-3 mins or until dry (watch this so not to burn). Cut up crayons and place them in the molds. Insert silicone mold into the oven (I supported mine with a cookie sheet underneath to prevent spilling or bowing) preheated to 250 degrees, and bake until crayons are melted, checking often so not melt completely (the colors will all mix if left in too long). Remove from oven and place immediately into freezer for 5-10 minutes or until firm. Let sit 5 minutes and carefully remove from silicone mold.